I asked several people about going to the party at 4 and they all tell me it will not count as a park day you don't have to have a park ticket to go to the party just your party ticket.....
*Yep, you don't need to use a day of your tickets if you use your party ticket after 4pm. My memory is that there's a separate entrance set up, so just make sure to use that and not use your regular admissions. That will be nice to have an extra park day at the end to go back to whichever you want a bit more of.
Awwwweeessssoooommmmeeee!!
*I'm wondering why you have DTD on the 5th after MK instead of the 1st after AK? Since AK closes at 5pm, you already have the evening free (and you have the next morning to rest also - or go back to DTD, I suppose). I would be hesitant to give up MK time for DTD.
I like the new plan. I agree though I think you should do DTD after AK and then you will have two days at MK!!! My fave part is that you did NOT change your party date...
Oh! I should mention again that we actually have plans for late that evening. After AK we will be going to Hoop Dee Doo! Last time we went to HDDMR after our AK and the timing was just so perfect with AK closing at 5 and us getting to HDDMR by 6:15 that we thought we'd do it again!! Also, after the dinner show we thought we'd try to catch the tail end of the campfire sing along! I read it goes until about 8:30 and HDDMR was done by 8, so maybe we could make it? We also took a boat from Ft. Wilderness to MK to catch our bus after that, so it actually ended up being a late evening still!
*Be prepared for crowds on the 29th. It's EMH evening during a time of year where the park has parties on a lot of nights, so it will most likely be very busy until towards the very end of EMH (which I'm assuming you won't be at, due to DHS in the morning). Either stick to less-popular things or FP+ the evening.
Good to know!! I plan to book the Fireworks Dessert Party that evening, so at least we will have a nice reserved spot to watch Wishes from, and then I figure after that we can just walk around and do any rides that have short wait times, and I will get to book FP+ for late that evening too!! Because I don't know what time we will fly in I will most likely make all our FP+ pretty late. We actually probably will stay to the end or close to it, it's only until 11pm, and on our last trip we had nights that we didn't get to bed until 1am and the kids still did great getting up and to rope drop the next day!!! I figure since this is our first few days we will be riding high on energy and excitement too!! That's why I was planning on more rest towards the end of stay!
Does that make sense? What do you think?? I value opinions, and sometimes I don't know how my logic is panning out, lol!!
*Regarding Crystal Palace, we've been twice for breakfast, both before park opening. I think that is one of the biggest benefits - being able to wander a nearly-empty Main Street and get family pictures without the crowds. Plus, the food is great too. We had a good time with the characters on our pre-kid trip, but I will say that Crystal Palace was probably the biggest highlight of our entire trip with Izzy. I think we may ALWAYS do a pre-park-opening CP breakfast from now on. Of course, we've never been to Chef Mickey's, so there's that...
Sigh.... don't make me re-think again! JK! That's why I asked!! We like the idea of getting in the park early too, thats the only reason CP was on the list actually, but we are hoping we will be able to do that on our last full MK day bc we hope to book the BBB at the earliest time slot! So hopefully we will get those coveted non-crowd castle pics. I just can't bring myself to do 4 of our 8 table service meals as Breakfast buffets! And I really like the other 3 over CP... I am thinking this will be one to move to next trip. I did consider doing CP dinner instead of CM, but then Chris really really liked CM last time and wanted to go back, plus it's fun to ride the monorail and eat outside the parks some too.
I am glad to hear that you guys like it a lot, because, like CM, I have heard mixed reviews! Even though the kids don't watch Pooh, they know who he is and would still get a kick out of it, I'm sure.
I think the new plans look pretty good! Overall, I think you will be happy you are doing a slower morning the day after
MNSSHP. That would be my main concern.
I agree! I had actually come up with a plan to just sleep in the next morning and do a park later in the day, but that is still pretty early on in our trip, and honestly, last time we had nights that we didn't get back to the room til 1 am and we still had no problems getting up and at 'em the next day. We are all good about getting up early, our issue is we would sometimes start to drag towards the end of the day. That's the only reason I thought MK day after MNSSHP might be okay. We will have to leave MK by 7 for the party again anyway, and we can leave even earlier if we prefer. Then we can go swim, or go to bed early or whatever we like.
Isn't it fun playing around with your trip plans?
Hahahahaha....
Playing around- yes, tons-o-fun! Changing my entire spreadsheet- not so fun!

Maybe I've rubbed off on you since EVERY time you check our ptr we have new plans up....

This is true!!!